Higher booze tax would cut crime: expert

Higher alcohol taxes would cut booze-related crime, reduce consumption among problem drinkers and only be a "modest burden" on most Australians, a leading public policy expert says.

Mark Kleiman, from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), says lifting the tax on alcohol is the best way to tackle alcohol-related violence.

"There's no drugs policy nearly as effective as raising alcohol taxes, nothing is nearly that easy, it's a free lunch," Professor Kleiman told a Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) conference in Sydney on Wednesday.

He said higher alcohol taxes would not require enforcement by police but would reduce the drinking of problem users and put a very modest burden on moderate drinkers.

In 2010, the Henry Tax review suggested all alcoholic drinks should be taxed on their volume of alcohol, at the rate applying to draught beer.

There have also been calls for cheap wine to be taxed at the same rate as drinks like spirits and pre-mixed drinks.

However, the federal government has previously ruled out any changes to the way alcohol is taxed.

Dr Kleiman told the conference that alcohol-fuelled violence could also be cut if people convicted of a drinking offence had a licence that barred them from buying booze.

But he said that would only work if everyone had to show a driving licence when buying alcohol at venues like bottle shops, pubs and clubs.

Dr Kleiman said attempts to control drug supply by just locking up drug dealers were setting police an "impossible task".

"Law enforcement is naturally futile when applied to mass-market drugs dealers," he said.

He said jailing drug dealers "simply created a niche for new dealers", noting that drugs policy should focus on alcohol.

"Alcohol is to all of the illicit drugs, in the damage that it does to health and the crime it creates, as the Pacific is to the Mediterranean, and we have our entire navy in the Med," Dr Kleiman said.

AAP

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